Hi! Welcome to the forum for Platinum Arts Sandbox Free 3D Game Maker. I currently have the forums locked as I am attempting to properly update them.

In the meantime please join the new Discord Server!

If you have any questions please e-mail me through the Platinum Arts website.

Making Seamless textures

Learn more on how to use Sandbox, or submit your own tutorials or resources.
justanother1
Member
Member
Posts: 37
Joined: October 9th, 2011, 3:18 pm
Name: Joe

Making Seamless textures

Post by justanother1 »

for this tutorial I'm using Paint.NET along with several of the plugins. I can't remember which plugin was in which pack so you'll need to get several ( You should get them all anyway, their free and very useful). The image I used is a free wallpaper found here. I brought the image into Paint.NET and cropped it down to an area I like toward the upper right hand corner and resized to 512x512. Your crop doesn't have to be exactly square, but try and get it close so there's not too much stretching. Then I duplicated the Layer so I have two to work with.
tut1.jpg
...

On the bottom layer I used the Seamless Texture Creator plugin from the Effects-Distortions menu, using the Seamless Texture Helper setting. What this does is swap the upper right quarter and the lower left quarter, and the upper left quarter to the lower right quarter. but it leaves an ugly cross in the middle, this is what the top layer is for.
tut2.jpg
On the top layer we'll use the eraser tool around all the edges except in the middle where the cross is. You can erase more or less, the trick is to find areas where the two layers will blend nicely. Finally use the magic wand selection tool to select all the transparent areas, the INVERT your selection, and use the Effects-Selection-Feather Selection plugin. I use the full 10 setting. this will transparent the edges and help it blend nicer. Then flatten and save your Seamless texture. Then we'll need a Heightmap. Start by using the Black and White function in the Adjustments menu, then add a new layer for touch ups. The height map is a depth representation on a greyscale. However darker colors will show up as depth in the wrong area, so we'll use a lighter grey color and paint in those areas, then use Effects-Blurs-Guassian blur and Layer transparency to blend it in.
tut3.jpg
justanother1
Member
Member
Posts: 37
Joined: October 9th, 2011, 3:18 pm
Name: Joe

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by justanother1 »

Once you have a good height map You can flatten and save that out ....
Then Use any of the Normal Map plugins to make your Normal Map. You may want to play around with the Adjustments-Brightness and Contrast on your Height-Map before using a Normal Map plugin, depending on the Images you use, and you may want to jump into Sandbox and see the outcome of your textures before closing Paint.NET.
tut4.jpg
I've found as a rule of thumb, Your Normal should look just Opposite of what it will do in a game engine, cracks will look like veigns popping out, and rocks will look like caves.
Here's the final result ....
tut5.jpg
justanother1
Member
Member
Posts: 37
Joined: October 9th, 2011, 3:18 pm
Name: Joe

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by justanother1 »

and here's the textures .... Your welcome to use them any way you like !!
Attachments
rock1NM.png
rock1H.png
rock1.png
chocolatepie33
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 2458
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 5:31 pm
IRC Username: CP

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by chocolatepie33 »

This is a great tutorial, although I do believe quite a few people here use the GIMP or photoshop. Anyways, maybe you could create a zip file with the image files, along with the require script to load into Sandbox? (I mean a package.cfg). Those are incredible textures you have. Any plans on more?

Also, You wouldn't mind if I added this to the wiki, would you? (the tutorial, I mean)
Julius wrote:Contribute to http://www.opengameart.org NOW!
Save the wiki!
justanother1
Member
Member
Posts: 37
Joined: October 9th, 2011, 3:18 pm
Name: Joe

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by justanother1 »

Yea, go ahead .... I make textures all the time, I'll post a few more
chocolatepie33
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 2458
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 5:31 pm
IRC Username: CP

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by chocolatepie33 »

alright, thanks... I think I might make a GIMP version of this based off of yours... again, would you be OK with that?
Julius wrote:Contribute to http://www.opengameart.org NOW!
Save the wiki!
justanother1
Member
Member
Posts: 37
Joined: October 9th, 2011, 3:18 pm
Name: Joe

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by justanother1 »

Yes that would be fine .... I'm sure Gimp and Photoshop have similar plug-ins .... I used info from quite a few Photoshop tutorials in Paint.NET
chocolatepie33
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 2458
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 5:31 pm
IRC Username: CP

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by chocolatepie33 »

Good, thanks. I'll be working on that soon.
Julius wrote:Contribute to http://www.opengameart.org NOW!
Save the wiki!
User avatar
jSoftApps
Member
Member
Posts: 426
Joined: May 2nd, 2011, 10:02 pm
Name: J.R.
IRC Username: jSoftApps
Location: jSoft Apps Software Innovations HQ
Contact:

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by jSoftApps »

Also, there is a textureize plugin for gimp that allows your images to be transferred to a tile-able, seamless texture with a press of a button. I would try it out. It's on source forge somewhere.
jSoft Apps Software Innovations - App, Games and More!
Visit our Website!

Image

jSoft Apps is now on indie db!
Image
chocolatepie33
Support Team
Support Team
Posts: 2458
Joined: April 27th, 2010, 5:31 pm
IRC Username: CP

Re: Making Seamless textures

Post by chocolatepie33 »

it's actually a native part of gimp now, I believe. Filters->map->make seamless. It's not as good as how justanother1 does it, as it screws up the image badly.
Julius wrote:Contribute to http://www.opengameart.org NOW!
Save the wiki!
Post Reply